Heart and Soul

[Red Dawn]

Hi

i called this series Heart and Soul because of the emotion, intensity and passion put into his work by the conductor......he's Adrian, the Music Director of the Singapore Wind Symphony, and also (i believe he still is) the Head of the Music Department at the United World College of South East Asia.

i finally had a chance (and a small tiny space) to photograph him in concert with a reasonably good vantage point. (but not high enough to avoid all those music sheets on their music stands) This chance came about when the SWS performed at the Victoria Concert Hall last weekend. Compared to their tiny home theatrette, the VCH is like a mansion.

All shots:
EOS D30, 70-200 f2.8L
ISO 1600 @f2.8

i've stopped using noise removal actions for high ISO shots so that sharpness of the images are not compromised, and for black and white pictures, the grain is actually good!

enjoy!

 

[Megadark]

Great picts. Love the b&w dimension to it. As for the out of focus music sheets, I am having mixed feelings about it. They do seem a little out of place but it does give depth and character to the pictures.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by Megadark
Great picts. Love the b&w dimension to it. As for the out of focus music sheets, I am having mixed feelings about it. They do seem a little out of place but it does give depth and character to the pictures.

i think i may just tone down the white of the music sheets.....
i would hate to crop them off....they do add to the pic, imho...

nevertheless, i will cry a crop and a toned down version, to see which one works better

 

[Wai]

haha...look at the last pic...was he looking at you shooting at him??

btw, in such formal concert, i tot photography is not allow??

will they mind if i dun use flash when taking photo??

 

[StreetShooter]

1. What kind of shutter speeds were you shooting at?
2. Did you use a tripod, or handheld?
3. How did you do the B&W conversion? Simple grayscale?

TIA for your answers.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by StreetShooter
1. What kind of shutter speeds were you shooting at?
2. Did you use a tripod, or handheld?
3. How did you do the B&W conversion? Simple grayscale?

TIA for your answers.

dun have the EXIF info with me right now, but if i remember correctly.......most of it at 1/125......i'll go back and check the exact figure and also whether i'm at full zoom.

all the shots are handheld.

For B&W conversion, for this series, i used Digidaan's black and white channel mixer presets, and then tweak the curves a bit to get the desired effect. The curve tweaking is very minimal, and i think for half of the photos, i left the curves alone.

Digidaan's channel mixer:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/workshop/channelmixer/channelmixer.html

 

[Red Dawn]

Hi

to add on, for some reason, digidaan's channel mixer presets work VERY well for this series of photos. i have always been using it for all my B&Ws, but this set looks really authentic (to me at least....)

here's one of the original colour version: